Herbst Architects recently completed a beautiful home under the trees in New Zealand. When we say “under the trees” we mean it! The property was 90% covered by Aukerlands native Pohutukawa trees, which created a challenge for Herbst, a New Zealand based architecture firm founded in 2000 by Lance and Nicola Herbst. “In order for the home to exist it would require the destruction of a large number of mature trees. To do this we looked to the trees themselves to give us the cues that we needed,” the two architects explained.

“We separated the brief loosely into private and “public” components, giving us smaller individual masses with which to articulate the forms. The private functions of bedrooms and garage are housed in two towers which are construed as freshly sawn stumps of the trees that were removed. To allude to the bark of the stumps the skins of the towers are clad in black/brown stained rough sawn irregular battens. The interior spaces are then seen as carved out of the freshly cut wood, achieved by detailing all the wall / ceiling and cabinetry elements in the same light timber.”